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Following up quickly on their open beta last week, the fine folks at Vlingo have officially announced the release of Vlingo 2.0. Vlingo is a free and popular voice-powered application allowing users to take control of their BlackBerry without adding strain to their precious thumbs.

“We launched vlingo 1.0 for BlackBerry smartphones in June, and consumer adoption has exceeded our aggressive benchmarks,” said Dave Grannan, CEO of vlingo. “Our users have spoken more than three million times to our application, including over one million times to compose text messages with the power of their voices. This is validation of our unique approach to voice recognition, which hinges on making mobile data and applications easier to find and use. It provides clear evidence of the growing need to simplify the mobile phone user experience.”

New Vlingo 2.0 features include Facebook and Twitter status updates, full message read-back, and SureType support. You can find the full updated feature list after the jump, as well as download links for North American and UK users.

A week ago we told you that Vlingo was running a closed beta for its Vlingo 2.0 voice-powered application. I’ve been told by our friends at Vlingo that the 2.0 beta is now open to all residents of the UK, US and Canada!

Because Vlingo is an application that learns and improves based upon user feedback, it’s really important that the BlackBerry Nation helps Vlingo out to make their application as useful as possible. This is especially true for UK BlackBerry users!

In addition to participating in the Vlingo 2.0 beta, you can also fill out a quick 10-15 minute survey. Doesn’t sound like your thing? What if I told you that everyone who completes the survey will be entered in a drawing to win an 8GB iPod touch or one of 3 $50 Amazon.com gift certificates! I thought that might peak your interest!

You can find everything you need to know about the Vlingo 2.0 open beta and survey after the jump. BlackBerry Nation, Assemble!

By now, you should know how we feel about Vlingo: weloveit. But now, the makers of this great voice-powered application need your help to make Vlingo even better! Read this below:

Vlingo is currently looking for active BlackBerry users in the US, Canada and the UK to test the latest features and functionality of our voice-powered application. Be one of the first users to try it out and have direct input into how the product evolves. Sign up now!

To participate, you need to meet the following criteria:

* Have a Pearl, Curve or 88xx
* Are interested in using voice to interact with your BlackBerry
* Be willing to fill out a survey post beta
* Live in the US, Canada or the UK

As part of this program, you’ll be testing and providing feedback on vlingo features designed for social media, Web search, messaging and much more. The program begins on Wednesday, October 8 and runs for one week. All beta testers will be asked to include your e-mail address so that vlingo can contact you to fill out a brief survey at the end of the test period. We will never sell or provide your contact information to any other company. We ask you to keep your beta test experience private until the formal product launch later this month.

To sign up for the closed beta, hit the link below via your BlackBerry Browser:

After a few setbacks and delays (damn you, CTIA), the BlackBerry Cool Podcast is back! It’s also our 40th podcast, which is some sort of milestone, I guess, and a good place to implement changes. We’ve fiddled with the format a little, added some music and a new weekly podcast guest: Fake Ted Rogers. The BlackBerry Cool Podcast will also now be released on Mondays (apologies to all those who enjoy listening to podcasts while raking leaves on the weekend).

This week’s podcast is a bit of a catchup, as we discuss the major news of the past month: the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 and BlackBerry Storm, and Rogers new BES/BIS plans and BlackBerry Bold price drop. Coincidentally, we also discuss why RIM will never make a BlackBerry app store. Whoops. In fairness, the BlackBerry Application Center is the perfect compromise between what we said RIM needs and what they would never do, so give us partial credit. We also attempted to talk about RIM’s stock and the economy, but cut it because we had nothing significant to contribute on either subject.

Downloading/streaming options for the BlackBerry Cool Podcast can be found after the jump, as well as links to all the relevant news stories. Enjoy!

What the Gubernator wants, the Gubernator gets (or he’ll be back). Starting in January of 2009, citizens within the great state of California will no longer be able to text message while driving. This new law covers not only sending, but the reading and writing of text messages as well; violators will be charged $20 for the initial offense and $50 for each recurring violation. The primary motivation for the law was SkyNET

“Banning electronic text messaging while driving will keep drivers’ hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road, making our roadways a safer place for all Californians,” said Schwarzenegger.

Californians take heart, however: you can have both safety and text messaging via Vlingo, a free voice-enabled application that’s extremely easy to use! Read our review below to learn more.

As keen observers of cool new ways to interact with you BlackBerry, we’ve had our eyes on Vlingo sinceWES back in May, when most people knew of them as the white label solution for Yahoo! oneSearch. We also helped to promote their open survey to provide feedback and improve their voice-enabled BlackBerry application.

But with the official release of version 1.1, Vlingo has stepped out of beta and into the spotlight. It’s time to answer the question of what a voice-enabled BlackBerry can do and whether or not you need it.